The Degas House

On 2306 Esplanade lies the historic home of the late, famous French painter, Edgar Degas. Degas was known for his impressionist art work in painting, drawing, and sculpting. His works focused on depictions of the body, specifically through dance. His paintings captured dancers in movement hoping to create an a very realist view through his art.

After the Civil War in 1872 Degas left France and escaped to his family's house here in New Orleans. Both Degas' grandmother and mother grew up in New Orleans so he had much connection and history in the city. During his stay at the house, he created some of his most famous works titled, "Portrait of Estelle".

The house now serves as a Bed and Breakfast that also doubled as a museum of some of his paintings. Tours are available to the public that highlight two of his paintings: The New Orleans Cotton Exchange and Estelle Musson.

Backstreet Cultural Museum

The Backstreet is known as New Orleans hidden treasure. It's one of those places that you look at while you're parking the car and wonder "Am I in the right place?" The Backstreet Cultural Museum was founded in 1999 by Sylvester Francis, who is a videographer and photographer. It is located on 1116 St. Claude Ave, which is in the Fauborg Treme section of the city, which is the oldest African American neighborhood in the United States. This museum was once the home of the Blandin Funeral Home. As much as this is a living museum, it's also a community center and a neighboorhood pillar. It preserves and perpetuates New Orleans' African American parading traditions through collections, exhibitions and publications, public programs, and performances. The traditions consist of Mardi Gras Indians, Skull and Bone gangs, Baby Dolls, jazz funerals, social aid and pleasure clubs.

The Backstreet Cultural Museum features a permanent and enormous collection of Mardi Gras Indian suits, parade costumes, photographs, and artifacts. The museum holds the largest collection of Mardi Gras Indian suits. The Mardi Gras Indian suits are gaining recognition for their aesthetic importance and artistic power. Mardi Gras Indians evolved from a bond African and Americans shared in the 18th and 19th centuries in the South, when runaway slaves sought safety among the various tribes living in the area. There are 20 tribes found here in Louisiana some of which are White Cloud Hunters, Wild Apache, Flaming Arrows, and Yellow Pocahontas. Most of the Mardi Gras Indians wear their costumes only one time and after that, they donate it to the museum.

Not only do the museam have second line parades, it also hosts the annual White Buffalo Day Ceremony. White Buffalo Day is a day of gathering of the tribes for unity, peace, and healing. It started on August 27,1995 in New Orleans on the site of the old battleground by Claiborne and Poydras and on the scared ground of Congo Square.

After researching the Backstreet Cultural Museum, it makes me wonder what else does New Orleans have to offer that we don't know about. Even though I didn't visit the museum yet, I encourage everyone that hasn't been there to go and visit. I read of a lot of the reviews and they say it's awesome. If anyone is interested in visiting the Backstreet Museum, it is open on Tuesday-Saturday from 10 am-5 pm.

Creole architecture is a tradition unique to Louisiana, incorporating a unique blend of styles taken from the Caribbean, Africa and Western Europe (primarily France). A home built in the
Creole style is going to have: a broad roof, a wide porch with French doors and windows along its length, a lack of hallways in the interior and a vibrant, colorful painted exterior. Creole homes have a wooden frame with bricks used for support. For safety reasons, Creoles built their kitchens outside of the home, in order to reduce damage should a fire break out. Two great examples of Creole Architecture in Louisiana are the Hermann-Grima house and Laura Plantation. The former is a Creole Townhouse in the French Quarter and the latter is a restored Creole Plantation.

The many windows and lack of hallways is a Caribbean influence. They allow the house to cool via unrestricted cross ventilation. In the summer one would open up all the windows and the house would stay nice and cool. Growing up here, even though I didn't live in a Creole house, my mom always did this to keep our house cool without having to turn on the air conditioning. It's more effective without hallways but even with them it'll work to keep the heat out. Broad, flat roofs were common on Spanish homes, and were brought to the Creole style by them. French doors and windows are, obviously French. The lively paint-jobs these houses received is typically credited to African influence. The Creoles liked to keep their houses brightly colored to set them apart from Anglo-American homes, which were almost always stark white.

Creole Architecture evolved into New Orleanian Architecture, and its influence can be seen in many buildings today that were built after the Creole-dominated period of Louisiana's history. Shotgun houses, an architectural trademark of New Orleans have similarities with Creole houses.
One of the most noticeable similarities is the importance of color. You'll never see a row of shotguns all painted white. Secondly, while shotgun houses lack a porch with many windows, they're built straight for the same reasons a Creole house is build without hallways. Shotgun houses are easy to cool via cross-ventilation.

The buildings here in New Orleans are very special due to the unique history this city has. Try to really look at houses when you pass them, and pay attention to their architectural qualities and where you'd think certain techniques and qualities come from. If you like art, you can get a lot of enjoyment out of just glancing at a house.

The Dark History of New Orleans....

New Orleans has always had many ties to myths, Voodoo and other unexplainable phenomenon, but what is accurate and what is made up to interest tourists? New Orleans has had a few proven events that have occurred and added to New Orleans' Dark History. There is very little evidence of myths such as, werewolves and vampires in New Orleans, but there are tales of mass murders as well as twisted experiments gone wrongs and encounters with bad Voodoo. One unexplained event was the "Murder at the Sultan's Palace". In the late 1800's a mysterious Sultan moved to New Orleans looking for a place to reside that was fit to house his activities, so he moved into a house on Dauphine Street previously owned by Jean Baptiste Le Prete. Many of the city people knew that the Sultan was running a harem out of his residence and often kidnapped women and children to add to his numbers. But, on one early morning one of the Sultan's neighbors who was accustomed to hearing the loud music coming from the residence heard only silence and saw a trail of blood coming from under the door. The police soon came to investigate and found body parts strewn everywhere making all of the people murdered unidentifiable. They also found the Sultan buried alive in the back of his house. The theory surround this mass murder was that the Sultan actually lied and was running from his brother who was the actual sultan and his brother found his whereabouts and murdered him and everyone who resided with him to get rid of any possible heirs to his throne.

There was also the story of Madame Delphine LaLaurie who was a very prominent woman in the city of New Orleans. She was known for throwing extravagant parties and treating her slaves relatively nicely. One night while her friends were gathering downstairs for a party that was supposed to occur that night, she was making a late entrance as usual one of her slaves jumped off the balcony after an altercation between her and Madame LaLaurie. That incident alone was cause for suspicion, but she was nonchalantly given a fine and they moved one. Though soon after a fire broke out in the beautiful Royal Street home which caused the authorities to show up at once, but what they found was not pleasant. They rushed into the kitchen where the fire was started and saw a slave chained to the stove, the slave directed them to the basement in which they found hundreds of mutilated slaves chained up and experimented on. The putrid smell overwhelmed the authorities as they went on a search the the LaLaurie couple, but they had fled without being noticed.

Many of the stories add to the richness of New Orleans' culture and gives a more interesting aspects to the relatively more pleasant side of the city. To this day both residences can be seen in what was closest to their original condition. The LaLaurie house has had many owners, but weird occurrences continue to chase away prospective buyers.

Friday or Saturdays?

Hello everybody!

As per requested, I would like a show of hands (or, erm, a show of posts?) on who prefers what day? Friday or Saturday? Please comment upon this post with your answer so that we can get a field trip on the way!

Jazz Funerals: The Mourning of Death, the Celebration of Life

The tradition of Jazz Funerals, as we know them today, has been around since the early 19th century. However, the concept and culture of playing the type of music that later on influenced Jazz in America at burials has been around for the past four centuries. The tradition started out amongst the Dahomeans of Benin and the Yoruba of Nigeria, beginning first as a primitive form of burial insurance where societies of tribesmen would would promise their members that they would have a proper burial once they died. In order to assure this, members would invest their resources, hence the early form of insurance. Then, when African slaves were taken to America, these societies became early social clubs and fraternities that dedicated their memberships to providing these burials.


Music was eventually incorporated into the tradition based upon the African ideal of celebrating all life events that were significant and meaningful through music, which includes the final event of death. Around the 18th century, brass bands were becoming more and more popular, so as a result they would frequently be asked to be apart of funeral processions in New Orleans. During this time, most people who took part in these funerals preferred the term "funerals with jazz" instead of "Jazz Funeral", because they felt as if the latter title implied that the focus of the tradition was on the music, not the deceased. Yet, as brass funk started to become more popular, participants in the tradition began to warm up to the title of Jazz Funeral. However, many people during the mid-20th century still frowned on the use of this type of secular music during funerals, especially the Catholic church. The church felt as if this type of music disrespected the practice, so for a large amount of time the only people who typically performed these funerals were black protestants in New Orleans. During the 60s, this started to change along with the rest of the country due to civil rights and other prominent movements.


Jazz Funerals are usually held for prominent local musicians, important figures in the New Orleans community, Krewe members, or people connected to the New Orleans music industry. They begin as a procession from the home or funeral home of the deceased in which friends, family, and a brass band march to the burial site. On the way to the site, they usually play hymns and solemn music. Once the person is buried, however, the mourners say their goodbyes and the band begins to play more upbeat music (When the Saints Go Marching In is a very popular choice) as they second line around the area. As they do this, onlookers will usually join in on the second line to be included in the celebration of the deceased's life.


As Sidney Bechet, the famous New Orleans Jazz artist, once put it, "Music [in New Orleans] is as much a part of death as it is of life."

Museums of New Orleans

When it comes to New Orleans, not many people first think about the museums that the city has to offer. New Orleans actually offers many great art museums. Although none of the first three museums are Creole specific museums, they all offer a different view of some part of Creole culture through their art.

The Contemporary Arts center is located on Camp Street close to Lee Circle. It was founded in 1976 as just an artist-run and artist-driven center. After going through renovation in 1990 the Contemporary Arts Center has really flourished. Since that renovation the arts center has become more involved with New Orleans Art, including Creole art. The Contemporary Arts Center does not have much of a Creole presence however.

Contemporary Arts Center

The Ogden Museum is devoted to the art of the American South. A common Creole tie-in to the Ogden Museum is artists with Creole backgrounds or influences. In fact, at Ogden, they have an exhibit opening on April 21^st 2011 called: One World, Two Artists: John Alexander and Walter Anderson. John Alexander was greatly influenced by Creole culture, and Walter Anderson grew up in New Orleans. Just in the past winter, Ogden had a special Creole furniture exhibit. The artist who creates the Creole furniture is Greg Arceneaux. Ogden is less than a block away from The Contemporary Arts Center.

A Creole Desk made by Greg Arceneaux

The New Orleans Museum of Art is the oldest art museum in New Orleans. It is located in City Park near the end of the Canal Street line. It was founded in 1911 as the Delgado Museum of Art. The main collection at The New Orleans Museum of Art is European and American from the Italian Renaissance to the modern era. It includes a vast selection of French and Spanish art from the time before settlement all the way through the creation of the city. Although there hasn’t been a Creole based exhibit recently, they release information about Creole culture; more specifically a study on the art of Creole building.

New Orleans Museum of Art

After a little more research, I think the New Orleans African American Museum would be a great source for Creole art and history. It’s located in Tremé, a historically Creole neighborhood. The museum is dedicated to protecting, preserving, and promoting through education the history, art, and culture of African Americans in New Orleans and the African Diaspora.

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New Orleans African American Museum